Fahmi, Amal; Brügger, Melanie; Démoulins, Thomas; Zumkehr, Beatrice; Oliveira Esteves, Blandina I.; Bracher, Lisamaria; Wotzkow, Carlos; Blank, Fabian; Thiel, Volker; Baud, David; Alves, Marco P. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 can infect and propagate in human placenta explants. Cell reports. Medicine, 2(12), p. 100456. Elsevier 10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100456
|
Text
main.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC-BY-NC-ND). Download (3MB) | Preview |
The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to lead to high morbidity and mortality. During pregnancy, severe maternal and neonatal outcomes and placental pathological changes have been described. We evaluate SARS-CoV-2 infection at the maternal-fetal interface using precision-cut slices (PCSs) of human placenta. Remarkably, exposure of placenta PCSs to SARS-CoV-2 leads to a full replication cycle with infectious virus release. Moreover, the susceptibility of placental tissue to SARS-CoV-2 replication relates to the expression levels of ACE2. Viral proteins and/or viral RNA are detected in syncytiotrophoblasts, cytotrophoblasts, villous stroma, and possibly Hofbauer cells. While SARS-CoV-2 infection of placenta PCSs does not cause a detectable cytotoxicity or a pro-inflammatory cytokine response, an upregulation of one order of magnitude of interferon type III transcripts is measured. In conclusion, our data demonstrate the capacity of SARS-CoV-2 to infect and propagate in human placenta and constitute a basis for further investigation of SARS-CoV-2 biology at the maternal-fetal interface.
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit item |